Simon Pegg

Simon Pegg
Pegg with Spaced co-star Jessica Hynes in the background, 2008
Born	Simon John Beckingham 14 February 1970 (1970-02-14) (age 39) Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, UK
Other name(s)	Dr. Russel Fell/The Fresh Pegg
Occupation	Actor, comedian, writer, producer, singer, director
Years active	1995–present
Spouse(s)	Maureen McCann (2005–present)

Simon Pegg (born Simon John Beckingham; 14 February 1970) is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer and director. He is best known for his starring roles in Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Run Fatboy Run, the comedy series Spaced and his portrayal of Scotty in the revamped Star Trek. Much of his major work has been in collaboration with some combination of Nick Frost, Jessica Hynes, Dylan Moran and Edgar Wright. Pegg has a friendship with American actor David Schwimmer. The two have worked together in Band of Brothers, Big Nothing and Run Fatboy Run. His likeness was also used for the character of Wee Hughie in the comic book series The Boys; while this was done without Pegg's permission, he quickly became a fan of the title, and even wrote the introduction to the first bound volume.^[1]

Biography

Early life

Pegg was born in Brockworth, Gloucester, England, the son of Gillian Rosemary (née Smith), a civil servant, and John Henry Beckingham, a jazz musician and keyboard salesman.^[2] His parents divorced when he was seven and he took on the surname "Pegg" after his mother re-married.^[3][4] He attended many schools including Castle Hill Primary School and Brockworth Comprehensive Secondary School and later Stratford-upon-Avon College to study English Literature and Performance Studies. Pegg studied drama at the University of Bristol and wrote his undergraduate thesis on "A Marxist overview of popular Seventies cinema and hegemonic discourses".^[4] At Bristol he appeared in a Drama Society production of Howard Barker's Victory alongside Sarah Kane and David Greig.

Career

Pegg attends the premiere of Run Fatboy Run

In 1993 he moved to London and performed on the stand-up comedy circuit. In 1995 he took his acclaimed one-man show to the Edinburgh Festival, which led to his being invited to perform at festivals in Adelaide and Melbourne in Australia and Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in New Zealand, which he did in 1996 and 1997. His work as a stand up attracted the attention of several TV producers, leading to appearances in Asylum, Six Pairs of Pants, Faith in the Future, Big Train and Hippies. From 1998 to 2004, Pegg regularly featured on BBC Radio 4's The 99p Challenge. In 1999, he created and co-wrote the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced with Jessica Stevenson. For this project Pegg brought in Nick Frost, his best friend. For his performance in this series, Pegg was nominated for a British Comedy Award as Best Male Comedy Newcomer. Pegg co-wrote (with Spaced director Edgar Wright) and starred in the "romantic zombie comedy" film (or "RomZomCom"^{[citation needed]}, also "Zomedy"^{[citation needed]}and "Romantic Zomedy"^{[citation needed]}) Shaun of the Dead, released in April 2004. At George A. Romero's invitation, Pegg and Wright made cameo appearances in Romero's film, Land of the Dead. In 2004 Pegg also starred in a spin-off of the television show Danger! 50,000 Volts! called Danger! 50,000 Zombies!, in which he played a zombie hunter named Dr. Russel Fell.

Pegg at a premiere for Star Trek in April 2009

Pegg's other credits include the World War II miniseries Band of Brothers, guest appearances on Black Books, Brass Eye Special, I'm Alan Partridge, The Parole Officer and in the Factory Records story 24 Hour Party People. He also played the mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha, the Strontium Dog, in a series of Big Finish Productions audio plays based on the character from British comic 2000 AD and featured in Guest House Paradiso, a film based on the sitcom Bottom.

Pegg appeared in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio story Invaders From Mars as Don Chaney, and portrayed the Editor in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Long Game". He also narrated the first series of the documentary series Doctor Who Confidential.

Upon completion of Shaun of the Dead, Pegg was questioned on whether he would be abandoning the British film industry for bigger and better things, to which he replied "It's not like I'm going to run off and do Mission: Impossible III!" He then promptly went on to do just that, playing Benji Dunn, an I.M.F. technician who assists Tom Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt.^[5] In 2006 he played an American character, Gus, in Big Nothing alongside David Schwimmer.

In 2006, Pegg and Wright completed their second film, Hot Fuzz, released in February 2007. The film is a police-action movie homage and also stars Nick Frost. Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a London policeman who is transferred to rural Sandford, a fictional village situated in Pegg's home county of Gloucestershire, where grisly events take place.

In 2007, Pegg starred in The Good Night (directed by Jake Paltrow) and Run Fatboy Run directed by David Schwimmer and co-starring Thandie Newton and Hank Azaria.

In 2008, Pegg wrote the dialogue for an English language re-release of the cult 2006 animated Norwegian film, Free Jimmy. Pegg received screenwriting credit for this, and Pegg also voiced one of the main characters in the English language version, which has an international range of actors including Woody Harrelson.

Pegg is co-writing and starring with Nick Frost in an upcoming film entitled Paul, with production expected to begin in June 2009. The plot revolves around characters played by Pegg and Frost road tripping across America.^[6][7] Pegg also announced that he and Wright had the idea for "the concluding part in what we are calling our 'Blood and Ice Cream' trilogy" (the first two being Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). It is provisionally called The World Ends.^[8] In those films and in Spaced, Pegg typically plays the leading hero while Frost plays the sidekick. However, he has revealed that Paul will reverse this dynamic. Pegg has also stated that Wright will not direct, Paul not being part of their 'Blood and Ice Cream' trilogy.^[9] The completed script appeared on the 2008 Black List, a film-industry-compiled list of the best unproduced screenplays. Paul received two votes.^[10]

Pegg played engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the newest Star Trek film,^[11] released 8 May 2009. He wore a kilt to the film's United Kingdom premiere,^[12] at the Empire Leicester Square theatre. He told Jo Russell's show on Absolute Radio that he is waiting for a Scotty action figure to add to his collection of Simon Pegg action figures from Dr Who, Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the Dead. He is currently completing a film, directed by John Landis, about Burke and Hare, the Ulster men who were notorious murderers and bodysnatchers in early nineteenth-century Edinburgh.

Personal life

Pegg in New York City

Pegg married Maureen McCann on 23 July 2005, in Glasgow. Nick Frost was the best man at his wedding. The couple currently reside in Finsbury Park,^[13] London - where Shaun of the Dead was also filmed. On 21 February 2009, Pegg announced his wife was five months pregnant with the couple's first child.^[14] The baby was delivered successfully in July 2009, a healthy baby daughter.^[15]

Along with Jonny Buckland, Pegg is godfather to close friends Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter, Apple.^[16] Pegg's parents and sister briefly appeared in Spaced while his mother alone appeared in both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

He has sectoral heterochromia^{[citation needed]}, where his eyes are blue-grey yet a portion of his right eye is brown. His favourite film is Raising Arizona. He has stated that his favourite shows are The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer^{[citation needed]}.

Pegg was awarded an honorary fellowship by the University of Gloucestershire on 4 December 2008.^[17]

On 18 September 2009 Pegg joined Coldplay on stage during their gig at Wembley Stadium, playing harmonica to the song "Trouble", then shouting "Hello, Wembley!" to the enjoyment of the 80,000+ person crowd.

Credits

Television

Film

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Simon Pegg

• Peggster.net
• Simon Pegg at MySpace
• Simon Pegg at the Internet Movie Database
• Simon Pegg in Gloucestershire
• Simon Pegg at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Mark Kermode's review of Hot Fuzz on BBC Radio Five Live - includes Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright interview
• BBC Radio Gloucestershire interview with Simon and John Beckingham (his father) - from the set of Run Fatboy Run
• Simon Pegg on Twitter